Book - Operational Analysis of Artificial Scarcity
Herbert Marcuse points out in One-Dimensional Man that a highly productive industrial system fails to provide for everyone. There are mechanisms by which freedom and prosperity to all have so far in history been elusive - from the Garden of Eden to the Digital Age.
What exactly are the specific mechanisms by which Artificial Scarcity is maintained, and even protected - both by conformists and those who call for change?
Transcending the current condition to freedom is one of the central, unsolved issues that society faces today.
In my Book, I will delve into the specifics of the mechanisms of artificial scarcity. The goal is to understand these mechanisms in order to propose an operational approach to addressing these mechanisms in human enterprise. Unlik theoretical analysis to date, the OSE experiment revolves around a practical approch - sociotechnical experiments and potentially scalable solutions to the central qeustion of freedom and prosperity for all.
There are certain many mechanisms - some obvious and others less so:
- Cost of Living
- Planned obsolescence
- Competitive Waste
- Resource depletion and pollution
- Corporate time scales, corporate governance
- Creation of artificial 'needs'
- Reliance on scarce resources - experiments in Hydrogen
- Illusion of choice
- Special interests
- Financial systems
- Hegemony
- Psychology of self-determination
- "Reinventing the wheel"
- Cultural dogmas
- Psychology of Self-esteem and search for meaning
- Political ponerology
- Hegemony
- Corporate, bureaucratic, and peer economy structures
- Legal systems, intellectual property rights regimes
- Structure and rules of public sector, nonprofit sector, and public-interest funding
- Education towards growth vs fixed or conformity mindset, psychology of nature vs nurture
- Mass media and popular culture
- Health, body and mind plasticity
- Structure of research and development and innovation institutions
What are the more subtle interplays of these?
How do existing institutions maintain a focus that is essentially broadcast/power-concentrative/consumer-minded as opposed to distributive of knowledge and prosperity?
A careful study and a few experiments are proposed for execution over the next 5-15 years. These include:
- Incentive challenges as the new R&D model
- Solving the wealth distribution aspect of capitalism. Experiment in 3D printing.
- Solar hydrogen for approaching 1 on the Kardashev Scale
- New University Model based on Self-Determination
- Feasibility of Dunbar Scale neosubsistence
- True Open Source Computing: Feasibility of Open Source VLSI as a 150 Person Business from Sand to ICs. Specifying material resources and staffing for the Village Fab.
